moysturize ukraine 07: Ukr.Day12-Part1

SUNDAY Sept 2nd.
So I still had my clock off by an hour at this point (thanks to Windows Installer and my phone not updating) and thought I woke up at 10 to go play Badminton with Lesha, Vlada, Marina, and Archung. Really it was 11 and they called at 11:30 "to let me sleep in" after they all laughed at the night before when I told them I usually arose after noon on Sunday in the US. Lesha met me at my place and then we took a train to the park. The train went through artists/painters row which is like an art market between the traffic directions on the main road through the city (trees line both sides of the walk for most of the city). I'll have to visit it prime time another day. We took the longer way to the park and walked by a church and through a smaller park

with tanks and missiles. It used to have a WWII plane where the missiles now sit,

and Lesha said he grew up climbing and sitting in it, but some thieves stole it presumably for scrap metal. balsy. Then we walked by more buildings, a rich restaurant and casino. He said his grand parents or step parents or something live near there and heard the bombs go off. WHAT? Apparently the mobs or whatever fight over that Casino or something. Awesome. Then we stopped by your standard drink cart n cooler lady and I picked out a drink that was green like my shirt and had a cactus fruit on the front.

Turned out to be tasty. 100ft later and we were at the park for badminton.

We only had 2 rackets, so the doubles thing was a misjudgement on my part. Apparently it was too hot for the courts in the stadium, so we played in a shaded black top area, just hitting back and forth. The highlight was when Lesha and I played back and forth over a wall and hill (so we got to hit the birdie real hard). The birdie suffered a couple tears from this..oops. Apparently the birdie had been partially fixed with chewing gum to attach the head to the plastic, by Marina. It worked well. Actually, the best part was when Archung, Lesha, and I realized how gay (flamboyant gestures) we looked playing badminton (well, I admittedly look gay (metrosexual) most of the time anyway).

Then we realized how funny it was to antagonize the girls who moved further away from us so we wouldn't laugh/take pictures like they did of us... quid pro quo dammit. So here is a collage of ridiculousness.

Archung wouldn't play. Oh, that reminds me of soccer. that got vetoed by everyone else but Archung and me, before we arrived. So no ball =(. I brought shorts in my camera bag too.

the river. I said no, so we went to look at that. They had a niceAfter badminton was a stroll through the park. First stop was some lion statue, dunno the story there, but I wrastled him good.

Next it was down the hill towards the river and to Shevchenko park (the one I'd been to before, on the island in the Dnepr). I took more pics as we crossed the bridge.

Then Lesha asked if I had seen the cool church I'd taken pics of, the one on the island in little garden

and a good view of the statue of Shevchenko.

We'd worked up an appetite, so it was time to eat some weird Iranian burrito thing. So they had meat on a spit, like a gyro, and a bin of french fries. I was like oh, they eat french fries at the park (hadn't seen anyone with them). Nope. They take something akin to a big tortilla, slap down some meat, some shredded cabbage, some non-spicey pepper slivers, and then a handful of the french fries and cover it with ketchup, mustard, a tangy hot sauce (by request) and a yogurt. Then it is wrapped up halfway in plastic wrap (to keep the juices off your pants, duh) and a napkin.

No one would go on the crazy rides with me, so we opted for bumper cars instead. I gave em a good bashing. We passed a cute little kids train like the kind I rode as a kid, fun stuff.

I also noticed some guys across the park gettings excited about air hockey. Yeah, that guy is jumping up and down cheering.

Lesha said he loves air hockey too, and we can play. I didnt mention I had a light table at home.

We decided it was time to move on and hit the larger park. I would later see that it was Globa park from the various internet bride sites (the only places I found pretrip pics, other than what my dad found: a japanese rocketry site that has a lot of great pics, surprisingly)

because I recognized its giant outdoor theater called the "summer theater." So we walked back over the bridge and to a fountain area on the hill that overlooked the river and was about 40 ft or so higher than we had been. Speaking of brides, walking up the hill, we encountered the third wedding of the day, so I snapped a pic.